2014/10/01
The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth-largest lake. Now much of it is a vast toxic desert straddling the borders of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, two former Soviet states in central Asia.
In recently released images, NASA’s Earth Observatory shows the extent of the lake’s recession over the past 14 years.
The damage reached its peak this year, when the eastern lobe of the South Aral Sea — which actually was the center of the original lake — dried up completely.
Until the 1960s, the Aral Sea was fed by two rivers, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, which brought snowmelt from mountains to the southeast, and local rainfall. But in the 1960s the Soviet Union diverted water from the two rivers into canals to supply agriculture in the region.
http://www.erietvnews.com/story/26666965/once-vast-aral-sea-dries-up-to-almost-nothing
米ＣＮＮテレビは１日、米航空宇宙局（ＮＡＳＡ）が最近公開した衛星画像に基づき、かつて世界で４番目に大きい湖とされた中央アジアのアラル海がほぼ干上がった、と伝えた。
アラル海はもともとカザフスタン、ウズベキスタン両国にまたがっていたが、その中心の南アラル海の東側が完全に消えたという。
ＣＮＮによると、１９６０年代まで、山々の雪解け水などをもたらす２本の川が注いでいたが、旧ソ連が地域の農業用水確保のため運河に注ぐよう流れを変え、湖の水位に影響を及ぼした。湖水の減少は、穏やかだった周辺の気候も変化させたとされる。
http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/world/news/CK2014100202000168.html
旧ソ連の無謀な農業・経済政策が原因の自然破壊であり完全なる人災。
The shrinking of the Aral Sea – “One of the planet’s worst environmental disasters”
2013/05/06 に公開
The Dried up Aral Sea Eco-Disaster
2012/08/12 に公開